"connected media center" devices - the new stereo component receiver?

 I was reading
a Gizmodo article talking
about the proliferation of “connected media center” devices, that can
feed media from your PC to your stereo setup. Now, I’m no Hi-Fi guru,
but isn’t there already a device called the “receiver”, which is
what you plug all your other audio/video components into? It seems very natural
to me that these receivers would simply expand their charter to do the same things
as these “connected media center” devices. I see no reason why these
should be two separate categories of device.